Group 'Pocono Rising' wants tea party members in local government

Frustrated with the inactivity of their local tea party, a new grass-roots group in Monroe County hopes to promote tea party members to municipal and county political offices next year.

CHRISTINA TATU

Frustrated with the inactivity of their local tea party, a new grass-roots group in Monroe County hopes to promote tea party members to municipal and county political offices next year.

"If you can't change city hall, you can't change Capitol Hill," said guest speaker Julian Stolz, addressing the group called "Pocono Rising" during its inaugural meeting Saturday at the Pocono Inn in Delaware Water Gap.

Founded by tea party members Mike Avery of Stroud Township, Luis Bermudez and Ethan Koelsch, both of Middle Smithfield Township, the men say Monroe County's Founders Tea Party Patriots haven't done enough to promote candidates who share party ideals.

"We are the armed, lead platoon doing the hard fighting for the rest of the tea party in the area," Avery explained. "(The Founders Tea Party Patriots) perceive us right now as being counterproductive to what they are doing. Their emphasis is on education and they don't want to actively be involved in elections."

The tea party movement — with "tea" standing for "taxed enough already" — emerged last year after a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests organized by conservative groups.

Members of Pocono Rising identify themselves as conservative, though they say anyone is welcome to participate in the group.

Its ideals include fiscal responsibility, restricting the size of government at all levels and backing a free market, Koelsch said during the meeting.

Grier Haslam, a member of the local Founders Tea Party Patriots' coordinating committee, is aware of Pocono Rising.

The two local tea parties are not working together, though they have similar plans.

"Our game plan after this election is to get more people involved in local politics," Haslam said. "Our thrust over the past six months has been to get our membership involved in finding out what the candidates stand for."

The Founders Tea Party has done that by holding a series of town hall style meetings during the past several months, Grier said.

The next one will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Dale's Coffee Bar in Bartonsville and will feature Frank Scavo, R-22, who is running for Pennsylvania Senate.

There were eight members at Saturday's Pocono Rising meeting, including Avery, Bermudez, Koelsch and Stolz, the executive director and vice president of Pennsylvania Right to Work.

"No intelligent individual is going to take an army of this size against the Romans," Bermudez said, acknowledging the group has a long way to go if they are going to be successful in gathering political support.

There are several U.S. Senate candidates across the country who have admitted close ties with the tea party movement.